While studying the Bible, I came across a verse in the Book of Isaiah 43:18 what does it say “Forget the old things, because I am doing something new in your life.“That verse really challenged me and I asked myself two questions. These questions are: –

1 Do I usually always think about my past?

2 Am I waiting for the new that God has promised me?

There is great danger if we stay focused on our past. The devil uses the weapon of our past to prove to us that God cannot bless us. He will always remind you of the many times you failed in your past and other things that will make you start to doubt God and His power. In this article, I want to share with you the dangers of thinking about your past. These dangers are:

It prevents you from starting something new.

When you think too much about your past and remember how you have been failing, then you cannot dare to do something new. The Bible records the story of Simon Peter and his brother when they were fishing. They had worked all night but caught nothing. They had even gotten to the point of giving up. Jesus appeared to them and ordered them to throw the net into the deepest area. Instead of obeying Jesus, they began to tell Jesus how they had worked all night and caught nothing. But later, they obeyed and caught a large number of fish. The reason they weren’t following Jesus’ instructions was because they were thinking about how they hadn’t been able to catch anything all night. If you dwell too much on your past, you will always find an excuse to stop you from starting a new project.

It makes us limit the power of God

We are tempted to limit the power of God when we think about our past. Perhaps in your past you have been walking, paying for a ticket when you go to work and you did not even own a bicycle. And God comes into your life and tells you that you will own your own vehicle. You may be tempted to doubt Him, as you may wonder why He was not blessing you in your past. God can do something new in your life regardless of what your past has been like. He can bless you even if you were cursed in your past. We must not qualify God’s power by our past experiences, we must qualify it by what His word says He can do. This is the main reason we have been limiting God. But if we read the Bible, we will see that God can change your situation.

It makes us not have big visions / dreams.Another danger of thinking about the past is that it makes us not have great visions. We need to rise beyond our past and say enough is enough. We should start dreaming big dreams regarding our lives regardless of what our past was like. We must change our thinking and believe in God’s word that He is doing something new. Once we change our view of the past, we begin to see new and greater things happening in our lives. When God called Gedion to go fight the Midianites, he initially refused due to his family’s past. But when he believed that God would be with him, he led the Israelites and they won the battle against the Midianites. He became a greater man who was used by God in a powerful way. In closing, I want you to note that your negative past does not disqualify you from having a bright future.